


Crow's Teeth

by CleverMagnificentCoyote



Category: Frozen (2013), How to Train Your Dragon (Movies)
Genre: F/M, Gender or Sex Swap, M/M, Other
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-08-17
Updated: 2014-08-17
Packaged: 2018-02-13 12:55:07
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,412
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2151498
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CleverMagnificentCoyote/pseuds/CleverMagnificentCoyote
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>When dragons start raiding Queen Aurora's lands, Maleficent turns Diaval into a Nightfury and sends him off on a diplomatic mission. Meeting Toothless, Diaval gets much more than he bargained for.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Crow's Teeth

With a newly crowned Queen to teach about ruling both fairies and humans, and neither side prepared for the inevitable culture shock, Maleficent had run out of patience. Human children caught tiny, glowing pixies and shut them in jars, until their relatives demanded them back, while swamp goblins built dams in the irrigation channels, leading to the flooding and drought of many crops. Prior to Maleficent running out of patience, Diaval would have questioned that she had any.

He fluttered into court, still yawning over last night's intervention between a pack of angry brownies and the shoemaker who had neglected to leave them any gifts. Maleficent turned her head just enough to spot him from the corner of her glittering green eye. She snapped her fingers. He shut his eyes in an automatic flinch.

Magic burst around him like a cloud of lightning, crackling and hot, dazzling all his senses. The first thing he heard was the courtiers shrieking, and then his wingtip--his suddenly much larger, less feathery wingtip--brushed a tapestry hanging from the ceiling. The courtiers were shrieking "dragon." He opened his eyes. He was barreling toward the throne and the princess. He spread his wings wide and dropped his tail down, banking his flight and coming to a more-or-less graceful landing just before the Queen and Maleficent. He was getting far used to Maleficent switching his form. Before he could complain, Maleficent started speaking.

"Diaval, good, you're here, and so nicely suited to the occasion." Her red lips curved up, flashing the smallest grin. Diaval shuddered. She made a dragon look toothless. Speaking of which, where were his teeth? He had had teeth last time he was a dragon. The thought prompted their appearance, however; they shot out of his gums, extending like a cat's claws. He yelped and sat down hard. He crossed his eyes, opening and closing his mouth as he retracted his fangs and then extended them again. He couldn't decide if the gums or the teeth felt weirder after having a beak for so long.

"As you can see," Maleficent continued, "you're a Nightfury. It should make you marginally more agreeable to the... Alpha Dragon who rules the Isle of Berk and the surrounding oceans. His scaly flock has been raiding this Kingdom." Her lips pursed. "No doubt Stefan caused some trouble. Be a dear and smooth things over with the Alpha. His name is Toothless."

"I don't know anything about dragons," Diaval protested. "And the ocean is too big to fly over."

"I have every confidence in your ability to manage the situation. Don't take too long, hmmm? Dragon fire doesn't burn itself out."

Diaval shot a look of appeal to Queen Aurora. She gave him a harried, apologetic smile and extended a rolled up map. "You go north," she said.

**

To his surprise, Diaval found that he had no trouble flying the distance. He shot over the farmlands so quickly they blurred, and he could not see the ocean waves, only a gleam of vivid blue. He flew miles and miles without feeling them, swooping down to snatch up leaping fish now and then. After the oppressive tension at court, it was nice to be out flying and enjoying the glorious day. When the air grew colder, he merely found it refreshing. Maybe he should ask Maleficent to turn him into a dragon more often. When he found a tiny rock island, he took a nap, and continued his journey at leisure.

Alas, all good things had to end, and he eventually spotted the Isle of Berk. It looked like a blurry smear on the horizon of ocean, but it was a blurry smear in the right place. Sighing, he drifting low to the water, skimming the tips of it with his wings for one last refreshing dip.

He hear a shriek of wild excitement, as if a voice of the deepest baritone were trying to say "Eeeeeeeeeeeee!" and a bolt of black whipped overhead, then spun around, leaving an arcing wave with his tail. A tail, Diaval saw, whose fins appeared to be strapped on. The dragon backwinged, looking Diaval up and down and lashing his tail with excitement.  Diaval backwinged too, to keep from crashing into him, and they hovered over the ocean, staring at one another.

"You're--you're a Nightfury!" the dragon said. "I didn't think--I didn't know there were any but me left!"

"I look like you?" Diaval said, at first startled and then rather pleased. The dragon before him was sleek as a crow in full plumage, with an impressive breath of shoulder and wings, with a fetching crest of spines running down the length of his back and tail.

"Not exactly!" The dragon sped into motion, whipping a few circles and zig-zags around Diaval to inspect him. "Much longer spines on your back, and your nose is more hooked." The dragon paused. "And your tail fins look a little like feathers."

"Yeeeeah, I've heard that." Diaval spread his wings and flapped them a few times to let himself glide along. "You wouldn't happen to be Toothless, would you?"

The dragon flew alongside him, and together they began to glide toward the Isle of Berk. "That's right. That is my name. Did you hear about me? Is that why you've come? Are there more Nightfuries where you came from?" The delight and hope in Toothless's voice called to Diaval's heart like Aurora's baby coos. He couldn't let it keep going.

"I'm the only one," he said. "Sorry. But I did come because I heard about you. I'm Diaval."

"Oh," Toothless said, his ear flaps wilting. "I didn't mean--of course you are. We're so rare, I didn't think there was anyone left at all. I was hoping if I ever found another Nightfury, she would be female, and then we would stop being so rare, and I'd have some non-human hatchlings to look after."

"Tell me about it," Diaval said warmly. "I have raised a human hatchling, and you know what? Even without wings, without any ability to fly at all, they run toward cliffs, get into trees, fall off high places. It's all you can do to keep them out of danger."

Toothless's eyes lit. "My human, Hiccup, has made wings for himself, and he jumps off my back, trying to fly. It does not work well."

Diaval paused. "So you are, actually, friendly with humans. Not eating them or burning them up or anything."

"That's how it is now," Toothless said. "Come with me to the Isle of Berk, and I will show you." His eyes narrowed in mischief. "At the very least, you are a dragon who can keep up with me. I'll race you to the Isle."

Before Diaval could squawk out a protest that he'd been flying all day, Toothless snapped his wings closed in a succession of flaps and shot ahead of him. Diaval tore after him, calling, "Cheating! That's cheating!" Toothless's ringing laughter floated back over the dragon's shoulder.

**

When they came upon the Isle of Berk, Diaval's eyes widened in amazement. Dragons soared in careful formations about the island, swooping down, snatching fish from the water, and arcing back up, like soldiers going through drills. They were circling the island, the island populated almost entirely by stooped old figures and darting children. Then the scene became clearer: half the population of Berk rode on the backs of the dragons. The children on the ground waved frantically as they soared past. The same dragons that had been raiding his kingdom were living peacefully with humans. Maybe Maleficent had been right, and it was all Stefan's doing. He'd certainly managed to tick off the fairies.

Toothless spat purple lightning into the sky and roared, "Tonight, we celebrate!"

The dragons swept toward them, flocking about them like a cloud of enormous, multicolored birds. Diaval was just a little disdainful. All those colors--he far preferred Toothless's pristine black scales. They flew side by side, two birds--err, dragons-- of a feather--er, scale, and Diaval felt profoundly appreciated. It was very different from being Maleficent's shoulder ornament. Everyone was admiring him. They lit up the sky with the fire of their breath.

"They all listen to you, right? That's what makes you the Alpha?" Diaval asked Toothless happily.

"I care for them and protect them. That is why I am the Alpha. Here, you must meet my family."

They dropped out of the sky and landed in front of a scrawny young man, who cradled a cooing baby in his arms, and a strapping young woman.

"This is Hiccup and Astrid, and they're the... alpha humans. The baby is Trip. Everyone, this is Diaval."

Both of the humans beamed at him and Toothless, and the baby stretched out its hands.

"Welcome to the Isle of Berk!" Hiccup said in a nasal voice. He addressed Diaval, but his gaze was on Toothless, and his lips caught in a half-smile of joy too intense to work itself into a steady expression. "Toothless and I have been looking for Nightfuries for a long time. It figures he'd find one while I was babysitting." Toothless rested his head on top of Hiccup's, rumbling warmly.

Diaval couldn't help the pleased swish of his tail. Aurora played with him like that, sometimes.

Astrid grinned at Diaval. "Not that looking after little Trip is any less of a feat. She's set it in her head that she'll fly like the dragons. I hope you'll find the Isle to your liking. Always room for another dragon."

"Well, thanks. I might just get to like it here." But first, he needed to get Toothless and his compatriots to stop terrorizing the Queen's subjects, which seemed manageable; Toothless obviously liked his humans. Diaval turned to address the Nightfury. "As it happens, I have my own family of nondragons. They asked me to come. They're kind of Alphas too. Queen Aurora and Maleficent. They wanted to establish harmonious relations with you and your dragons. And humans."

Everyone's attention riveted on him. "There are more humans and dragons living together?" Toothless asked finally, his eyes wide with excitement.

"No, sorry. It's a one-dragon kind of place. So far, anyway. I didn't expect dragons and humans to get along as well as you guys. We do have fairy dragons, but they're not the same thing. More magicky." He perked up. "Maybe you could come and meet the royal family, have a nice dinner. I think you'd like them better than the last King."

Toothless lifted his head. "For now, you are our guest, and we shall have a feast for you." He paused, lowering his wings in a burst of shyness. "We'll have to hunt, first. Do you want to come?"

Diaval arched his neck and flared his wings with pleasure. Diplomatic negotiations initiated, check. Befriending the handsome Alpha dragon, check. Maleficent might be pleased, for once. "I wouldn't like anything better."

**

The two of them were faster than all the other dragons, and by mutual, silent agreement, they flew well ahead of the flock. In the form of a Nightfury, Diaval realized he could fly better than he ever had been able to, and he and Toothless played, flying in tight little circles, trying to catch each other's tails, then shooting up into the sky together, flapping harder and harder until the air became too thin to hold them. Then they closed their wings against their bodies and fell and fell, only to catch themselves just before plunging into the icy water.

Eventually, they came across the same cluster of rocky little islands that Diaval had encountered on his way from Queen Aurora's lands, and he and Toothless perched. The island was small, and Diaval's excitedly lashing tail brushed against Toothless's. Diaval startled, whipping his tail the other way and curling it around a shelf of rock. "Sorry! I'm not used to-- uh, that is, my tail has a mind of its own sometimes."

Toothless half-turned, quick as a bird, and rumbled. "You've been alone, too." It was not a question.

"Not exactly," Diaval said. "Hahaha, you know, I'm kind of like you. None of my family are like me."

Toothless's lips lifted from his gums in a weirdly-human expression. "How did you meet them?"

Diaval wasn't one to turn down the opportunity for a story. "There I was, having a nice nap, when a hunter threw a net over me! I am fast, but you can't outrun a net that's on top of you. I thrashed around, roaring and clawing at the rope, but I couldn't get free. Then here comes Maleficent, with that ice-queen look on her face. She turned me into a human, and then I just lifted off the net. Saved my life, although I was the ugliest I've ever been."

Toothless's ears were lifted, and he bobbed his head eagerly. "I was caught, too." He hesitated. "Before dragons and humans befriended one another, the humans used to hunt us."

"That's terrible!" Diaval said. "Why didn't you fry them all?"

"We had bigger problems than humans, much bigger."

Toothless told him about the monster that had demanded a tithe of fish from all the dragons, how the Nightfuries had become nearly extinct, and how he and Hiccup had become friends. Diaval improvised stories in return, switching out flocks of crows for dragons, and not naming any royal titles in the discussion of his family. Toothless listened with rapt attention, and casually, through the conversation, Diaval leaned closer, and a little closer, until their sides were touching, and he could feel the rise and fall of Toothless' breathing against his own.

Careful as his maneuvering was, he did not expect Toothless to crane his head around and nuzzle along his cheek, the gesture so close to preening that Diaval tipped his head into it before he knew what he was doing.

"Stay," Toothless murmured. "Promise me you'll stay, at least for a while."

"You got it," Diaval said.

**

The snuggling did not last. They took wing again, and, drifting on the warm air currents in a state of contented bliss and happy anticipation, Diaval did not pay attention to how familiar the landscape was until they were right over it, on the edges of Queen Aurora's Kingdom, with the fields still dotted with grazing cattle and sheep. Diaval blinked once, and then twice.

"Hey, hey, wait! I thought you were friends with humans, Toothless!"

Toothless snorted, and there was an acrid smell of lightning. "We don't hurt the humans, not that they show us the same courtesy. We just help ourselves to dinner."

"You're stealing from them. Of course they try to stop you." Diaval actually felt more sympathy with the thieves than the people, but he was supposed to be stopping these raids, not participating in them.

"They hunt us," Toothless said. "With iron spears and iron-tipped crossbow bolts. They throw iron nets over us, and butcher us when the magic of our flight is taken away." Toothless sounded angry. "If we keep the number of cattle down, they do not have the supplies to hunt us, so we keep them penned in."

They were over the fields now, the same formation Diaval had seen over the Isle. A raiding formation.

"Have you tried talking-- Oh, damn."

Toothless shot him a wicked grin and dove, skimming over the grass and spitting bolts of purplish lightning. Outlines of giant crossbows were briefly illuminated, their iron glowing, before the wood burst into flaming wreckage. "Follow me!" Toothless cried, and the rush of air from a hundred beating wings boomed through the air. He flew to Diaval. "Hunt with me!"

"I can't--you can't!" Maleficent was going to skin him and make a cloak, and Aurora would be so disappointed.

"Of course we can." Toothless snapped his wings closed against his body to plummet into a dive. He roared, "Now!"

"Wait!" Diaval fell upon him with wings outspread and clawed feet extended to grapple Toothless' wings to his sides. He hadn't considered the logistics of grabbing the other dragon while Toothless' head was pointed at the ground and his own head was pointed at the sky. He grabbed Toothless's hindlegs first, wrapping his arms around the dragon's flanks and pressing his face against the Nightfury's haunches. Then he grabbed Toothless' shoulders with his hind feet, just as Toothless' wings began to snap open in surprise. The muscled ridge of wings drove into Diaval's belly, knocking the air out of his lungs. Disoriented, he clung to Toothless more tightly, keeping the other dragon's wings pinned to his sides.

After a second, he heard a muffled growl over the rushing of wind, and he gingerly unwrapped his tail from its tight coil around Toothless' head. "Let go! Let go!" Toothless said, and Diaval looked down at the ground rushing ever more quickly toward them. With a squawk, he disengaged and backwinged frantically.

Toothless corrected himself effortlessly, dropping back into a dive, and then swooping back up and around in the air to face Diaval. Around them all, Toothless' dragons hovered, waiting for his orders. The Nightfury's eyes were wide with confusion. "What are you doing?" he demanded.

Diaval looked around. Dragons everywhere. "Uh," he said. "Welcome to my Kindgom! Well, Queendom, really."

"These are dragon hunters!" Toothless snapped.

"The Queen will get them to stop," Diaval soothed. "No more hunting dragons. King Stefan was bad news, but Queen Aurora likes all kinds of creatures, and she won't stand for anyone being hurt. I promise. She didn't know anyone was hunting dragons. All we've heard about in the palace is the raiding."

"We have been careful to keep them from hunting," Toothless said, still angry.

"Come with me," Diaval pleaded. "I'm a dragon, right? They don't hunt me."

Toothless cocked his head to one side, studying him. "We did come to humans when they were frightened of us, and dangerous. To grow, we must take risks. But my dragons, and my people, are coming with me."

"Everyone's invited!" Diaval assured him.

**

Diaval spent the whole flight wondering how to manage all the people and all the fairies and all the dragons. He preferred to perch on Maleficent's shoulder and lurk at times like these. There were too many decisions to be made, and somehow he'd ended up responsible for them. He wished Toothless would take care of the problem while he, Diaval, languished on the sidelines and admired those wings, that crest... A Nightfury could make even a crow look plain.

No, damnit. Business. Hopefully he could get Maleficent alone before the meeting and keep her from mentioning that he was not in fact a dragon by birth. He wanted to introduce that subject with Toothless delicately, carefully, and most of all, some other time.

"Let me go first," he told Toothless as they approached, well ahead of the other dragons. "And I'll--" He felt a slight hum as they flew through the magical detection system the fairies had put up around the palace. As they flew over the courtyard, night-black and almost undetectable, he heard the guards start shouting, "Dragons!" and running about. Why couldn't magic be more convenient?

"Hey, hey, it's just me!" Diaval yelled. "Calm down! Maleficent! Come on! Come tell them it's me! Those crossbows are touchy!"

Meanwhile, Toothless faced the trailing dragons, roaring for them to stay back.

The doors of the palace banged open, and Maleficent strode out. "It's just Diaval," she said, without bothering to look at him. With a dismissive wave of her hand, she sent a bolt of green magic arcing toward Diaval.

"Mal--don't--" He tried to dodge. The bolt hit him squarely in the side, and at once he shrank, his sleek scales spread into feathers, and his muzzle sharpened into a beak. He flapped in the air, a crow once more.

Toothless whirled around at the blast of light, then stared at Diaval, searched the air around him, looked again, and sniffed. "Diaval?" He sniffed again. "What has she done to you?" He turned on Maleficent, teeth bared.

"Toothless, whoa, Alpha! Stop!" Diaval cried. "I'm ... I'm supposed to be a crow." Toothless stared at him, perplexed. "I like being a dragon better," he added softly. "I like you. I'm sorry."

"You're... a crow?" Toothless said, looking between Diaval and Maleficent in confusion.

"Not exactly how I would have chosen to have guests arrive," Maleficent said dryly. "But at least they aren't setting anything on fire. Yet." She turned toward Toothless. "My apologies for Diaval. I'm sure he meant well, or else he does now. It takes a lot of effort for a crow to be guilty." She waved at the roof. "Queen Aurora welcomes you to her lands. If you'd like to rest, you're welcome to the roof. We'll have some refreshments brought for your entourage. Everyone, time to put away your weapons and play nicely." Reluctantly, the guards lowered their crossbows.

Toothless was still staring at Diaval, ignoring Maleficent. No one ever ignored Maleficent in favor of him. Diaval flapped in little circles, unsure what to do with himself, and finally flapped over to perch on Maleficent's shoulder.

Toothless roared orders to his dragons, telling them to land on the roofs and take care with the new humans. Then he addressed Maleficent. "I'll speak with Diaval first."

Maleficent peered at Diaval, one eyebrow raising. Diaval dug his claws into her shoulder and hunched down. Heartlessly, Maleficent reached up and shoved him off. He flapped off, and querulously, landed on the ground and fluffed up all his feathers. Maleficent walked off, calling orders to servants and guards.

"That black-winged fairy does not treat you very well," Toothless said.

"She's just like that," Diaval muttered. "Grouchy on the outside. Also, I think she is perhaps not entirely happy that I brought a dragon army to her palace."

"You are not really a dragon--not really a Nightfury." Toothless sounded so profoundly sad that Diaval stopped staring at the ground and looked at him in concern. Toothless sat, his wings drooping. "It was a trick. Why? Why did you do that?"

"I didn't know. Maleficent thought you might like a dragon better." Toothless said nothing at all, and Diaval squeezed his eyes closed. "Okay, okay. I knew when you told me. I liked you. You're all... dragony and confident, and your family loves you. You seemed to like me, but you liked me as a Nightfury, and I didn't want to disappoint you. I thought we could get to know each other, and then Maleficent could let me stay a dragon if it worked out. "

"But you're a crow."

"I'm not." Diaval shook his head. "I used to be. I started as a crow, and then a human, and then a dog, and all other kinds of things. I've even been a dragon before. Other crows avoid me. I'm not anything, anymore." He glanced up quickly. "And that was all right. It's freeing, to be anything. But I want to try being something, just one thing, for a while."

Toothless, flustered, stared back at him, laid his earflaps back uncertainly. "I did like you, and I do like you, but..." he trailed off.

"Maleficent could even turn me into a female dragon," Diaval offered. "I mean, at least temporarily, though I have to say once you've been everything from a toad to a dog, male and female don't seem like that big a stretch. More like an inversion."

Toothless blinked, and blinked again.

"And I'm not saying it's a for-sure, I'll lay eggs, we'll live happily ever after kind of thing," Diaval added. "Just that I'll try it for a while."

"That is both the strangest and the nicest offer I have ever had," Toothless said. "Let's speak to your queen."

**

As Diaval had predicted, being a female dragon did not feel significantly weirder than any of his--her--other forms. He--she--was larger than she'd been previously, the better to lay eggs, she supposed. Her spines all had a touch of greenish iridescence, and she kept flicking the tip of her tail around to admire the shininess of them. Eventually, Toothless seized the tip of her tail between his teeth and nibbled on it, sending sparks of electricity all the way into her haunches. She growled playfully and caught his crest between her teeth. He froze, and as she began preening him, flopped to the ground, eyes closing in bliss.

Around them on the hatching grounds lounged other dragons, their claws and necks bedecked with jewelry from Aurora and Maleficent. Once the Queen and former Queen had understood that the dragons had been hunted, they'd sent out envoys to put a stop to it and begun hammering out a trade agreement involving transport-by-dragon. They'd also emptied out half the royal treasury as a show of good will. Diaval rested her head on Toothless' and wistfully eyed the diamond-and-sapphire encrusted pendant around his neck. As a crow, Diaval had not been entitled to any of the shinies, and she'd been too preoccupied with making it up too Toothless to even ask for one.

Now, though, she was the only dragon whose did not glitter with finery. She flipped the edge of her tail again. Well, at least Maleficent had given her a body that glinted like jewels. She was even getting used to the lack of feathers.

Toothless rumbled questioningly at her, and she bumped his head affectionately with her own. He'd seen where she was looking, though, and his eyes lit with sudden understanding. He hesitated, then lifted his diamond pendant off his neck and laid it between her front feet.

"Aw, Toothless," she said. "That's your shiny. You shouldn't give away your shinies."

"You should give away your shinies if you have someone to give them to," Toothless said, nuzzling her. "And now I do."

Diaval couldn't resist the glitter of diamonds. She dropped it over her head and cocked her head. It lay against her chest, bright white and blue against the black. "I'll get something to give to you," she said. "Afterall, this mating is going to make a formal alliance, and Maleficent will have to cough up some jewels for me on that occasion."

"Get emeralds," Toothless said. "I am growing very fond of green." He leaned into her and began to admire each one of Diaval's iridescent spines.  


End file.
